After Effects CC (2017.2)

Apr192017

Essential Graphics panel

Quickly access frequently-changed parameters and retain stylistic control of your compositions by packaging them as Motion Graphics templates in this new panel. Editors can change variables like text and color without changing the overall aesthetic, and your team can share templates via Creative Cloud Libraries.See how it works ›

Camera Shake Deblur

Rescue unusable footage by removing camera-shake artifacts such as motion blur.See how it works ›

Lumetri Scopes panel

Evaluate and accurately color-correct your compositions using Lumetri video scopes, which include Vectorscope, Histogram, Parade, and Waveform.See how it works ›

GPU-accelerated effects and performance

Render Fast Box Blur and other effects more quickly for instant feedback on your creative choices, and get faster performance across the app.

Simplified effects organization

Effects that reference layers now include source masks and effects.

Support for high frame-rate footage

After Effects offers native support for footage with frame rates higher than 99fps.

Dynamic Link for Team Projects

Iterate faster using Dynamic Link in Team Projects and save Team Projects compositions back to After Effects.Learn more ›

Expanded text support

After Effects now supports Indian language scripts and others that read from right to left, such as Arabic and Hebrew.

And so much more

Also includes: The ability to expand mask feathering for higher-resolution footage, assign color labels to composition and layer markers, and more.See full release notes ›

After Effects CC (2017)

Nov022016

3D rendering engine

Improve rendering performance on your CPU and create elements such as extruded text and shape layers directly inside After Effects with the new 3D rendering engine that uses Cinema 4D technology.See how it works ›

Easier collaboration with Team Projects

Collaborate and share sequences and compositions in real time with Adobe Team Projects (Beta). Features like version control and conflict resolution are built right into After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Prelude so teams can work better together. Available now for Creative Cloud for teams and enterprise customers.See how it works ›

Real-time playback

Speed up your workflow by playing back most raw footage in real time without rendering or caching first.

Faster effects and interactive performance

Get rid of bottlenecks and work faster with more GPU-accelerated effects, as well as Dynamic Link improvements that eliminate intermediate rendering between Premiere Pro and After Effects.

Live Text template improvements

Package your compositions in a single file that allows users to easily share Live Text templates with Premiere Pro.

Character Animator enhancements

Make Photoshop and Illustrator changes to your puppet and update faster with improved Adobe Character Animator CC (Beta) performance. Switch easily between Character Animator, After Effects, and Premiere Pro using Dynamic Link.See how it works ›

Typekit updates

With Adobe Typekit Marketplace, you can buy fonts from some of the industry’s biggest names and use them in your After Effects projects. Instantly sync your purchased fonts to your devices and bring them directly into your compositions.

Creative Cloud Assets improvements

Archive and restore all your assets stored in Creative Cloud, including the ones in your Creative Cloud Libraries, assets created with your desktop products, and mobile projects.

Shared templates

Make sure your team and freelancers are always working off the same page by creating your own new project template with set color guides and file structure, and sharing it in Creative Cloud Folders.

Date and time tokens

Keep track of multiple outputs from the same file by adding date and time tokens to your file name output template.

After Effects CC (2015.3)

Smoother playback experience

A new audio and video preview architecture lets you play back cached frames in real time with synced audio.

Faster app performance

Move faster when working in the Compositions panel or scrubbing through the timeline.

Accelerated effects

Render faster using GPU-accelerated effects such as Gaussian Blur and Lumetri Color.

More creative color tools

Isolate and adjust colors, balance whites, and make subtle shade adjustments with enhanced Lumetri Color tools. Create and apply new preset SpeedLooks in a single click.

Simplified Adobe Character Animator

Quickly tag puppet layers and record multiple takes of a character’s movement. Export faster with new Dynamic Link to Adobe Media Encoder. Control how each child moves with its parent using new puppet attachments.See how it works ›

Motion Trigger and Auto Blink behaviors

Use Character Animator to drag your characters across the screen and have them automatically animate according to their movements.See how it works ›

Faster importing

Import image sequences up to 10x faster over a local network or when using shared storage.

Improved Live 3D Pipeline

Export animated 3D text and shape layers to Cinema 4D for a more efficient workflow. Customize your elements and see them update instantly via Cineware.See how it works ›

Better collaboration with libraries

Control assets in read-only Creative Cloud Libraries so they can be used by team members but not changed or deleted.

Updated Libraries panel

Find the right content faster with a larger Libraries panel and filtered search of Adobe Stock, as well as new icons that make it easy to identify licensed Adobe Stock assets. See the length and format of each video in your libraries and get links to video previews.

And so much more

Also includes: The ability to composite with native 8K and 6K footage, encoding with custom render settings, swiping across open panels with the Hand tool, and more.See full release notes ›

After Effects CC (2015.2)

Jan272016

Smooth Cinema 4D integration

Use Live Link to synchronize your timelines in After Effects and Cinema 4D (R17 SP2), and leverage new support for the Cinema 4D Take System.

Faster, more flexible rendering

You can now use Cineware to render Cinema 4D files saved with Sketch and Toon or Physical and Hardware renderers.

After Effects CC (2015.1)

Nov302015

Optimized for touch and small screens

Work on your After Effects compositions using multitouch gestures on devices like Microsoft Surface Pro. Choose and activate panels and workspaces, navigate between panels in a group, and pan and scroll in viewers for smaller screens.See how it works ›

New video support in Adobe Stock

Choose from over one million royalty-free video clips to use in your After Effects projects. Build your compositions with watermarked assets that automatically update when you license them within the Creative Cloud Libraries panel.

Adobe Character Animator (Preview), now with multitouch

Use your fingers to animate your character’s limbs on touch displays and record the movements. The Character Animator interface is now also available in German, Japanese, and French.See how it works ›

Easy asset access from Creative Cloud Libraries

Drag assets from the Libraries panel directly into the After Effects Composition or Timeline panel.See how it works ›

Adobe Capture CC integration

Use an iPad, iPhone, or Android phone to turn any image into a production-ready asset. Extract a color theme or Look, or create a shape or vector graphic, and then save the asset to your Creative Cloud Libraries to use in After Effects.See how it works ›

And so much more

Also includes: Refined preview behaviors, new preview options, and more.Learn more ›

After Effects CC (2015)

Jun152015

Adobe Stock integration for licensing images

Save time finding, licensing, and managing royalty-free stock images and graphics now that After Effects integrates with the new Adobe Stock service. Once you save an image to your Creative Cloud Libraries, it’s immediately available for use in your compositions and other creative projects.See how it works ›

Your assets, available anywhere

Access and share important creative assets — like Looks and graphics — via Creative Cloud Libraries that are available in After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and Illustrator; mobile apps like Adobe Shape; and services like Adobe Stock.See how it works ›

Uninterrupted preview

Adjust a composition’s properties and even resize panels without interrupting playback. Uninterrupted preview keeps up with your creativity.See how it works ›

More accurate face tracking

The Face Tracker makes it easy to apply effects to select areas of faces. Use simple tracking to color correct or blur a face; track specific points to change eye color or mouth movements; or track measurements, such as how wide an eye is open. You can even export data to Character Animator.See how it works ›

Easy 2D character animation

Give life to characters you create in Illustrator or Photoshop by acting out their movements in front of a webcam. Adobe Character Animator (Preview) tracks your facial movements, lets you record dialogue or a voice performance, and enables you to trigger actions with your keyboard.See how it works ›

Customizable previews

Preview compositions, layers, and footage based on your experience and preferences. Choose intuitive default behaviors, create customized previews for different triggers, or revert to legacy preview behaviors with a few clicks.

Adjustable UI preferences

Navigate panels faster thanks to streamlined panel groups. Adjust the brightness of interactive controls to get the contrast just right.

Touch-optimized controls

In the first steps toward a more touch-friendly compositing environment, After Effects makes it easier to navigate between panels in a group by letting you choose and activate panels with touch-optimized controls.

And so much more

Also includes: Enhancements that save time when working with expressions, the ability to import JPEG 2000 files, and more.Learn more ›

After Effects CC (2014.1)

Oct062014

Refined user interface with HiDPI support

A simplified UI puts the focus on your projects and delivers a more consistent experience across devices, including HiDPI Windows 8.1 displays.

Enhanced 3D Pipeline

Work with 3D elements faster now that After Effects includes Cineware 2.0 and offers Cinema 4D R16 compatibility, plus improved layer support.

And so much more

After Effects CC (2014)

Jun182014

Keying effects

Preserve fine detail when keying compressed or poorly shot bluescreen or greenscreen footage. Use the Advanced Spill Suppressor to control the amount of green spill left in greenscreen footage.See how it works ›

Live Text templates for Adobe Premiere Pro

Package your After Effects compositions as Live Text templates so Premiere Pro editors can change the text without changing the text color, motion, or lower third background.See how it works ›

Flexible masking options and Premiere Pro interchange

Use masks to apply effects to specific areas of your compositions — no need for additional adjustment or track matte layers — and blend each effect individually into the original layer. Import masks from Premiere Pro via Dynamic Link for further refinement.See how it works ›

Adobe Color Themes integration

Create color themes using the Adobe Color Themes app on your iPhone or in your browser, and then sync your swatches to After Effects for use in your compositions.

Mercury Transmit

Get full-screen previews of your composites on a separate monitor. Send previews over interfaces like HDMI from a graphics card without additional hardware.

Media Browser enhancements

Navigate your media locally or across a network via Adobe Anywhere, and access complex media types like P2 and XDCAM as media, not as nested folders.

Adobe Typekit integration

Access a variety of fonts from Typekit for immediate use in your After Effects projects.See how it works ›

Panel integration support

Find and install plug-ins, extensions, training media, and other content via After Effects panels created by the developer community.

After Effects CC (12.2)

Dec132013

Faster, customizable output

Reduce file management clutter and organize your images with new customization of output file name and path templates.

Improved snapping

Layer and mask snapping behavior makes aligning both 2D and 3D objects simple, without needing to calculate and type in values. Now snap items to shape paths, bounding boxes, cameras and lights, and within shape layers.See how it works ›

Script enhancements

New script enhancements make it possible to automate output to various formats by using scripts to change render and output module.

Migrate settings

Migrate your settings such as workspace, preferences, and keyboard shortcuts from previous versions of After Effects CC to your current version.

And so much more

Also includes: Bezier paths for shape layers; the ability to use the Reload Footage command with missing footage; a new maximum value of 200 for the Brush Size properties in the Stroke and Write-on effects; and more.See full release notes ›

After Effects CC (12.1)

Oct312013

Mask Tracker

Quickly create masks and add effects that travel throughout a scene, avoiding hours of manual adjustment. Draw a mask around an object and it follows the object across frames, automatically adjusting position, rotation, scale, skew, and perspective.See how it works ›

Flexible scaling options

Make every pixel look its best, with your choice of bilinear and bicubic resampling. Use the detail-preserving Upscale effect to maintain quality and sharpness when transforming SD footage into HD, or turning HD into digital cinema 4K.See how it works ›

Property links

Copy and paste an effect, mask, or other properties from one layer to another so that the pasted instance has a live link to the original. Changes that you make to the original properties are reflected in the linked instances.See how it works ›

Faster Warp Stabilizer and 3D Camera Tracker

Analyze your footage up to 80% faster with new speed enhancements added to both the Warp Stabilizer VFX and the 3D Camera Tracker.See how it works ›

HiDPI content viewers for Retina displays on Mac computers

After Effects will now take advantage of a Retina display on a Mac computer to show each pixel of content in a viewer as a single pixel on the display.

Improved snapping

Layer and mask snapping behavior makes aligning both 2D and 3D objects simple, without needing to calculate and type in values. Now snap items to individual layers in a precomposition and to lines defined by a layer’s boundaries, even outside of the layer itself, making alignment easier.

GPU optimizations

Work faster with GPU optimizations. Enhancements in the ray-traced 3D renderer allow you to quickly work with extruded text and shapes. Inclusion of the NVIDIA OptiX 3.0 library improves performance and stability for the renderer.

Media Browser

Access and manage assets with this convenient, dockable panel. Quickly browse, open, and composite virtually any video format. Link to traditional movie, image, and audio files, as well as industry-standard storage media like P2 cards, RED, XDCAM, and ARRIRAW.

And so much more

Also includes: New properties in the Expression Language menu, rectified audio waveforms, enhancements to layers and mask path drawing, and more.See full release notes ›

After Effects CC (12)

Jun132013

Live 3D Pipeline

Objects and scenes from popular 3D modeling and animation software Cinema 4D can be used directly as footage inside After Effects without rendering first. This eases roundtripping between the programs and opens up numerous creative possibilities.See how it works ›

Refine Edge tool

It’s the end of hard matte lines. Keep the details when separating complicated foreground elements like frizzy hair or motion-blurred edges from complex backgrounds. This means you can create natural-looking composites without keying specially shot footage.See how it works ›

Track Optimization in the 3D Camera Tracker

The enhanced Camera Tracker in After Effects introduces Track Optimization, which lets you refine tracking points over time to gain more accurate 3D tracking in 2D space.See how it works ›

Warp Stabilizer VFX

A major upgrade to the much-loved Warp Stabilizer, VFX lets you choose which objects in a scene get stabilized; reverse a stabilization; and preserve a scene’s original scale to fix tricky shots, like aerial fly-throughs.See how it works ›

Search feature for missing fonts, effects, and footage

Never hunt for missing fonts, effects, or footage used in your comps again. With the new search feature, you can quickly identify and find missing fonts, effects, and other media in your compositions so you can easily relink them.See how it works ›

Snapping

Easily align edges, anchor points, and mask paths between layers when constructing complex objects with the new layer and mask snapping feature.See how it works ›

Bicubic resampling

Choose between bicubic and bilinear sampling for selected layers, which determines how pixels are sampled for transformations such as scaling.See how it works ›

Pixel Motion Blur

Add or enhance motion blur for moving objects in live footage and rendered scenes. You can use this effect to add realism, exaggerate movement, match shots, and make stuttery footage easier to watch.See how it works ›

Sync Settings

Synchronize all workspace settings in Creative Cloud to make working across multiple computers or setting up a new computer easier than ever.

And so much more

Also includes: New Send to Adobe Media Encoder queue commands; the ability to use the Adobe Media Encoder queue for H.264, MPEG-2, and WMV formats; a single command for purging both RAM and disk caches; and more.See full release notes ›